Melinda Wagner achieved widespread attention when her colorful Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion was awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

Since then, major compositions have included her Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, for Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic, and a piano concerto, Extremity of Sky, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony for Emanuel Ax. In the composerʼs words:

“Music offers composers an immeasurably rich and generous sonic landscape in which to explore the ʻlife storyʼ of each musical idea—its dramas, intrigues, joys and sorrows—a life. I strive to find various and persuasive ways of moving through the resulting temporal narrative, and to traverse a wide spectrum of expression and color on the way.”